Hyperion... was it ever as good as current Afflictor? Maybe in pre-CR times, when nibbling at enemies slowly was ok.
I do not know if Hyperion ever matched current Afflictor, but Afflictor was not always this strong as a playership, not with old phase cloak and active flares system. (EDIT: Afflictor was overpowered when it had Quantum Disruptor during 0.8, and it had no reliable counters, not if it hits QD first and destroys the would-be counter with AM blasters, which even the AI did!) However, Afflictor, along with Tempest (with two Heavy Blasters), could solo a Hegemony System Defense fleet during one of the earlier 0.6 releases. (Tempest was a bit better at it.) Hyperion did not have enough PPT to do it. Afflictor and Tempest could barely do it (with PPT down to critical malfunction level).
However, full skilled Hyperion was stronger during 0.6 (and maybe 0.7) releases, especially when it had flux stats to comfortably fire dual Heavy Blasters twice or maybe three times (it cannot do that now, so Mining Blasters are the best it can do today), and AI had no anti-phase AI. Also, with stronger missile specialization, it could kill or severely hurt a battleship with two Reapers (which enabled frigate spam dominance during 0.65; Hyperion assassinates enemy commander with all Combat 10 skills, and the forty frigate horde steamrolls everything else before PPT times out or CR decays too much).
Also, objectives were more important, and player wanted something to capture relays on the enemy's side as quickly as possible. Hyperion was the best at it, with Tempest being a distant second. (Phase did not get time shift until about 0.7.2.) Eventually, all endgame fights had objectives, and it was a good idea to capture some at least for enemy AI manipulation. Today, objectives can be ignored thanks to Electronic Warfare and Coordinated Maneuvers, and that is only in fights against human factions. Against Ordos (the really important fights for cores and colony spam), objectives do not spawn at all (and I like no objectives).
In pre-CR times, Hyperion was the key to dominance. Capture points on the enemies side while denying the enemy theirs to boost your DP limit, deploy your fleet to advance as a wall to crush the trickle of everything until it reaches the enemy spawn point. It was ridiculous watching my ships trying to exit the north side trying to get at enemy Onslaughts before they burn in, and back then, ships did not burn in like rockets as they do today. Of course, it was still sub-optimal to the ultimate build of auto-resolving system defense fleets and winning (which probably required max Leadership and Technology).
Also, phase-cloak before it gained time shift and phase cooldown (around 0.7.2) was just an imitation Fortress Shield that ghosted through bullets instead of absorbing them. (I prefer the old ghost shield for Afflictor and Shade because AI fought better with it.) Afflictor was a super Lasher, brawling with ballistics while flickering cloak and ghosting through bullets, while Shade was a better tank than Monitor by ghosting through everything while denying area with beams, needlers, and EMP. (Terminator Drone was also a lesser ghost tank.)